Bigamy trial to get new judge

Moore will preside over Nielsen case

SAN ANGELO, Texas - The bigamy trial of a former polygamist sect leader will get a new judge.

Wendell Loy Nielsen, 71, the former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with three counts of felony bigamy. He faces two to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

State District Judge Barbara Walther has been the judge for Nielsen's case, but she will be replaced for the March 21 trial in Midland by 118th District Senior Judge Robert H. Moore III.

Walther has been the judge presiding over the trials of other FLDS members who have undergone prosecution because of evidence collected during an April 2008 raid on the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado.

FLDS members have frequently tried to have Walther removed, saying she is biased. They cited as reasons her signing warrants that led to the YFZ Ranch raid and the possibility that she believed FLDS members threatened her.

The order for the assignment was signed by Judge Dean Rucker, the presiding judge for the 7th Administrative Judicial Region. He did not return a phone call seeking comment.

"The assignment is for a period beginning as determined by the assigned judge, and shall continue thereafter so long as may be necessary," Rucker's order states.

No new motions have been filed for a change of date, staff at the Schleicher County District Court said.

The document assigning Moore did not give a reason for the change.

Walther declined to comment.

Walther's staff will still be helping with the trial, said Sharon Young, court administrator for the 51st District.

The trial had originally been set for Jan. 24 in San Angelo, but Walther ordered the move to Midland, making it the first trial resulting from the raid that will occur outside the 51st District.

According to indictments, Nielsen married three women in 2006, including two on or about the same day. The FLDS church sanctions multiple marriages, which caused a split in the late 1800s with the mainstream Latter Day Saints, the Mormon church.

Nielsen had entered a plea of no contest and was sentenced to 10 years of probation. He later rejected the plea arrangement after being unable to transfer his probation to Colorado, where he has family, and he didn't agree to all the conditions of his probation.

The trial is expected to last at least until April 4, 51st District court staff have said.